The Confederation of Forest Industries (ConFor) believes controversial plans to lease 25% of Scottish public forest will not now go ahead and has come up with an alternative financing scheme for replanting which it says could deliver one million tonnes of Scottish timber to market.
According to ConFor chief executive Stuart Goodall, opposition from the Conservative, Greens, Labour and Liberal Democrat parties means that the proposal to lease a quarter of Forestry Commission Scotland land to a private business is unlikely to be “taken forward” by the minority Scottish National Party government.
The plan had caused consternation in the forestry and timber sectors, with opponents including ConFor and the Wood Panel Industries Federation (WPIF). The latter feared that the 75-year lease might be taken on by a power or wood energy company which would divert timber harvested from the forest estate to use for fuel and lead to shortages for the UK wood panel producers.
Now this proposal seems to be sidelined, ConFor has submitted a scheme for ‘hypothecating income from joint ventures that the Forestry Commission in Scotland enters into’. It previously suggested the idea to the former Scottish environment minister Michael Russell and has now submitted it to his successor Roseanna Cunningham.
“As it became clear that leasing was unlikely to survive, we stepped in and used our political contacts and an appearance in front of the parliaments’ scrutiny committee to outline our potential alternative,” said Mr Goodall.
The money raised from the scheme, he added, could deliver up to 15,000ha of new planting.
“That would help tackle a predicted future dip in timber supply and could deliver nearly a millon tonnes of additional timber,” he said.
The ConFor proposal includes ideas on how the private sector can ‘help deliver efficiencies’ at the Forestry Commission in Scotland and improve the functioning of the Scottish Rural Development Programme to channel more funds for new planting.
“The Scottish government recognises the benefits of planting more productive forests for the future growth of the forestry and wood processing sector, but also to make a contribution to reducing carbon in the atmosphere,” said Mr Goodall. “Unfortunately, this planting is not taking place.”
